„The main reason was that the Eastern Europe still interested me. I don´t know want it was – language, region maybe – I do not like the mountains and the stupid blocks of flats. I would always thought, why the Swiss live in those little houses, wir brauchen so viel Platz [and we need so much space]. Those family houses are crazy, those panelaks are actually a good idea, but better quality. So I thought: ‚I´d go to the Russian do the Soviet Union.‘ I started to learn Russian. For half a year, then I said no. I cannot do that. Then I had a nice magazine from Poland, so I read more and more and finally I said: ‚No, they are too catholic, I cannot go there.‘ Then 1968 came and eleven thousand Czechs and one woman in an architectonic office told me: ‚How about going to Czechoslovakia? That´s an idea. You´ll spend two weeks there, have a look around, you can live at my mum´s.‘ And so I went.“
„I was here for two weeks in 1969 and then again in spring and all my friend told me: ‚That´s not normal, what you´re doing.‘ Quickly after that I met Jiří. Jana, my friend, told me: ‚I have a great friend, he knows some Czech guy who speaks Italian.‘ Great, I have a chance to talk. I met Jiří, we went together to Lužnice, he was sympathetic because in August 1968 he was in Italy and came back home. He said: ‚No, I am home here. I am no immigrant.‘ That sounded very sympathetic to me. We went to Lužnice, I went to the Czechoslovak embassy in Bern and told them: ‚I want to stay here.‘ They told me: No, that is not possible. You need a job.‘ As I got one at an architectonic office, a company from former Eastern Germany at the Wenceslas square, I thought that´s great, I don´t speak Czech, so I would start there. And the embassy kept saying no. So I came back here. Every year I visited three times.“
„That was actually pretty hard. When I was the cues in the town, I just stood there. I see they are selling ham. So I cued and bought something for Alena, my sister-in-law or my mother-in-law. As I had no job. Those communist arsholes did not give me any work. At the embassy they told me: ‚Sie müssen sich zehn Jahren in Sozialismus bewähren. Gutes Leben in Sozialismus, nach bekomme ich tschechisches Pass.‘ [You must prove yourself in ten yours of socialism. Live well in socialism and then get the Czech passpost.] Nice, isn´t it? I don´t care. Ich habe Husak geschrieben. Ich war am Innenministerium und gesagt. [I wrote to Husa. I went to the ministry of interior and told them]: ‚I want to work.‘ Nach habe ich bei pumpa gearbeitet. Immer drei Monate, wie Brigade, wieder drei Monate [Then I worked at a gas station for three months. As a part-time worker, then another three months…]… but it was jolly. A dirty work, but I love that kind. Záchod geputzt, Luft gegeben Autos [I washed the toilets and pumped air into car tires], I understood nothing about cars, I constantly had to ask those automobile drivers, how much they need, I would do the cleaning, I was a completely exotic there. I would go and buy soup for those, who worked there. For two years I´d do such things and then I said: ‚Enough. Let´s go home. That´s enough, we cannot go this way anymore.‘“
Madeleine Landoltová was born on Oct 1, 1945 in Swiss Schaffhausen as the oldest of four siblings. Her father worked as a mechanic, her mother a fine artist. She spent her childhood in the Zug canton in the middle Switzerland. Her father was a religious socialist and engaged himself in the unions and was interested in politics, and similarly brought his children. The witness studied architecture. During her studies she entered the Communist party of Switzerland, but left after two years. She was interested in life in the Eastern Europe and in 1969 she left thanks to her acquaintance, a post-August emigrant from Czechoslovakia; she visited Prague and decided to stay there. During several visits in 1969-1971 she met her future husband Jiří Škvor, who she married in January 1971. For two years she then worked as a part-time worker at a gas station. In 1973 she decided to leave together with her husband for Switzerland. But their marriage spit in ten years. In 1985-1986 she lived as a volunteer in Nicaragua and Salvador. Madeleine Landoltová was an active member of the party Grüne Alternative and in 1986-1991 she represented GA in the Swiss parliament in Zug canton. In 1996-2005 she worked in the Public documentary centre in Doku-zug.ch. Since 2005 she has lived in Prague and worked in several NGOs (InBáze Berkat, Romodrom, R-mosty, Člověk v tísni).
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